Ballot scanning begins in Day 2 of Portland mayoral tabulations

Members of the media and the public are now watching about 20 city elections officials place stacks of yellow ballots into rows of scanning equipment, with Caleb Kleppner of consulting firm TrueBallot overseeing things.

There are only three or four members of the public here, and no mayoral candidates.

Mayoral candidate and city councilor David Marshall came to City Hall earlier today, when the scanning process we’re watching now was slated to begin at 8 a.m.

But because TrueBallot wasn’t able to set up its equipment last night as planned (the Election Day vote counting took longer than expected), elections officials got a late start this morning, scanning ballots at 10 a.m. instead.

This process is slated to take more than two hours, with each scanner reportedly capable of scanning about 2,000 ballots an hour. There are five scanners going now, but they’re not all going full blast just yet.

The picture at the top of this post was provided by Dorothy Scheeline, of FairVote, an organization which advocates for the ranked choice voting process we’re seeing now. The picture prominently features Kleppner, in the white shirt, helping elections officials get going with the scanning equipment.